BIRTH OF A SALESMAN

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ANNALS OF LITERATURE about the discovery of a short work of fiction, "In Memoriam," by Arthur Miller. The story is a precursor to "Death of a SalesmanO; it was written when the playwright was about 17. Miller turned 80 on Oct. 17, 1995, and not quietly. In England, the Royal National Theatre was performing his latest play, "Broken Glass," in repertory; in America, Nicholas Hytner was starting to film "The Crucible"; and Miller's collection "Homely Girl, A Life: And Other Stories" was published. In searching the Arthur Miller Archive in the Harry Ransom library at the University of Texas for a suitable way for The New Yorker to honor one of America's greatest--and certainly most productive--playwrights, writer came across the short story (included below this article) which foreshadows his masterpiece, "Death of a Salesman." The manuscript--an anecdote, entitled "In Memoriam," about a salesman Miller met while working in his father's coat business--was found stashed in a box by his mother, Augusta, soon after "Death of a Salesman" opened in New York at the Morosco Theatre, in 1949. Miller himself had forgotten about the story. A note attached to the manuscript reads, "The real Schoenzeit of the story threw himself in front of an El train the day following the incident." "I've always thought of the formation of my approach to writing as springing directly out of the economic crisis of the thirties," he said in an interview. The shock of the Depression and the subsequent collapse of his father's power just at the moment in adolescence when Miller was trying to make an identity from his father's example, had a traumatic effect. "It struck me often that this wound possibly is expressed through a quest for order, which literature is," Miller said. Miller said of the charge that Willy Loman had no values: "He does have values. The fact that they can't be realized is what is driving him mad."